Time Enough
by ShutUpAndPull
Summary: A post-Ep 6x17 piece: There are things Kate wanted Rick to know, and she thought she might never have the opportunity.


_One day you will hear the sound of time rustling as it slips through your fingers like sand._

 _Sergei Lukyanenko_

 _ **Time Enough**_

Kate fought to expel the frozen image of the senator from her mind the instant she stood, her hand secured in the comfort of Rick's, their bedroom just steps away, a safe harbor from the day's storm. The physical and emotional chill that'd taken up residence in her bones hours earlier still lingered deep, despite the gallant efforts of her partner, who longed for nothing more than to lift the weight of the past day from her shoulders and to banish it forever. She clung to the soft pile of the blanket he'd wrapped around her as he guided them across the loft, her slippered feet in marked shuffle, her body worn with fatigue.

"Castle, wait, I should take care of this mess first," she said, taking notice of their dishes from dinner left abandoned on the kitchen counter. "Your mom-"

Rick squeezed gently at her hand. "Kate, it's not important. That can all wait until tomorrow. Besides, my mother feels more at home in a messy kitchen than you realize," he teased in pure Richard Castle form. "Come on."

The light in the bedroom was agreeably dim, the glow of one lamp its sole source of illumination. Rick moved in behind her and slid the blanket from her shoulders, let it fall to the ground and remain. His hands traveled the line of her body down to the bones of her hips as he pressed his lips against the loose waves of her hair, lingering there blissfully in the scent of her.

Kate's eyelids fell closed at the sensation, at his touch, at the nearness of him. She let it wash over her, the present moment that the past hours had nearly robbed her of. Rick was her home now, everything she'd fought to get back to, everything her heart and mind had needed to pull her free of the darkness she'd been dragged into.

"Would you hold me?" she whispered, unaccustomed to hearing such words cross her lips.

Rick spoke no reply, his body directing hers slowly to their bed, the comforter and linens already drawn in wait. He climbed between the sheets first, reaching his hand out for hers and curling her in tight against him, her form settling into his like a puzzle piece. "I don't know what I'd do if I ever lost you," he murmured, his breath warm against her ear. "You're all I've ever wanted."

Her fingers burrowed into the spaces between his and the muscles of her legs tightened around the bend of his knees - anything to feel the whole of him closer. "I was so scared, Castle," her voice quivered, the sound muffled as it passed through the aggregation of emotions trapped in her throat. "I was so scared that I'd never be able to tell you all the things I needed you to know."

"Kate, please," Rick protested, "you don't have to say anything, not now. The only thing that matters is that you're here with me, tonight, safe."

Her body pulled away from his as she rolled onto her other side to face him. Her new position between him and the light emitting from the lamp cast a shadow across his face, but in spite of that, she could still feel his eyes on her. She drew a fingertip along the slant of his cheek and across the arch of his lips, his kiss a brief pause in its migration. The room was silent around them, save for the words swirling around her brain, words from pages of the story of them that she'd never before shared with him. Time had been all she'd wanted from the hell of that night - an hour, five minutes, one minute - time enough to make certain he _knew_. "Have I ever told you when it was I knew I loved you?" Kate asked faintly, weariness peering around the corner of each word. "Have I ever told you that?"

"Are you about to burst my fantasy bubble about it being the first moment you ever saw me?" Rick replied jokingly and with feigned disappointment.

"Rick, don't," she scolded, "I'm trying to be…" She paused and fell quiet. "I just want to share this with you, okay? I don't want time to take this from me, any of this. I want you to know and to understand, in case-"

"Hey," Rick broke in, his forehead pressed gently against hers on her pillow, "I'm sorry. Tell me. You can tell me anything. Tell me everything."

Kate brought a finger to her cheek, the tear that'd escaped leaving a meddlesome tickle in its wake. She brushed it aside and moved her hand to his chest, the heart she loved with all of her own beating there, strong and steady and sure. **"** I let you walk away once, a long time ago. God, I was so scared back then." She clenched the cotton of his t-shirt in her fingers. "When you came back after that summer away…the moment I saw you, after all those days and months without you, I never knew I could feel anything like that. That moment was when I knew I loved you and that the rest of my life would never be the same."

She lifted her head slowly from the pillow and leaned into him, her lips hovering above his, the light now in angles about his face. "You've changed my life forever, Castle," she told him. "I loved you then, but I had no idea what this could be, how much I could feel." She kissed him softly. "Thank you for showing me every single day. I promise you I will never take one minute of our time together for granted. I need you to know that."

"I know, Kate. I do," he answered assuredly.

Her mouth opened against his before he could utter another word and he pulled her to into him, his hands clutching at the hair falling around him. _I love you_ , she breathed, each time their lips parted. _I love you._

 **xxxx**

They lay nestled together in bed, hours later, neither willing to relinquish their hold on the other, and Kate watched Rick as he slept peacefully beside her. Her body begged her for the same, but she fought it with everything she had left in her. Time was all she'd wanted from that night - an hour more, five minutes more, one - and her wish had been granted. She wasn't going to waste any of it.


End file.
